LEGACIES AND MEMORIES

How hard some of us work in life to reach a goal we have set for ourselves. Farah Fawcett, strictly launched as a sex symbol, did a wonderful job as an abused woman in Burning Bed, a movie about an abused woman. Like all other messages in film with a painful message, we don't seem to see it replayed often. Her sad death of anal cancer is reported to have been caused by HPV (human papillomavirus).

Her death at 62 comes as a shock. Most of us would prefer our idols and friends to be around longer, as Bea Arthur did, leaving us at her 86. Michael Jackson, at 50, was surely not meant to have died when he was still practically in his prime. A friend commented that 'only in America can a cute little black boy grow up to be a rich and successful white woman'.

Do you ever find yourself wondering where an entertainer is today whom you liked? Is he/she still alive? Go to the Dead People Server. Recently, we also lost other great talents: Dom DeLuise, David Carridine, Ed McMahon...they all eventually fade. We are convinced that they achieved a particularly admirable degree of success in their craft. We may also wonder if we have achieved anything in our own lives to match them. However, most entertainers are like any other well practiced professional. Today they may live in films unlike those of a few generations ago when their colleagues failed to be born into an era of technological development such as we have for archiving today.

None of us can take 'it' with us but we can certainly leave a lot behind. If we can touch lives, make people happier and enrich them with any of our own resources we mayhave available, we too will have been successful even when we cease to be a memory as all those who knew and remembered us also die off. i once talked to a bricklayer who proudly pointed to the skyscrapers he had helped build. He beamed as he said he would be long gone but his buildings would still be there. A few years later his building met the wrecking ball for a new building to be built in its place with the builders, no doubt, living the same fantasy. Everyone who has lived leaves a mark. Some leave one so faint that a breeze erases it quickly. Others get written about and remain in history books. Does it matter to the person who is gone...quite doubtful that will ever be known.